Alarming blasts

It is quite alarming that on Saturday morning, 14 bomb blasts blew up the railway track in different parts of Sindh. Luckily, it did not cause any train to derail. A note found near one of the site of the explosions reveals the name of a certain nationalist party without mentioning the motivation.

Railway tracks are usually blown up in southern parts of the country by the non-state actors. These include some groups allegedly funded by foreign entities. Such groups although would not fight shy of targeting the settled areas and killing a large number of people, they tend to blow up railway tracks, electricity pylons and similar infrastructure to pressurise the state to fulfil their agendas. Yet there may still be a possibility that Saturday’s attack has been carried out by some other terrorist group for the sake of creating general unrest and fear among the citizens. However, what is worrying is the ease with which such attacks are frequently carried out. The apparent helplessness of the law enforcement agencies to stop them is likewise a serious cause for concern. It matters little, whether the culprits happen to be locals or foreign agents since their aim is to destabilise Pakistan. What is important is that these agents, apparently attacking with complete freedom, must be nabbed quickly. It is quite a shame that although the Interior Ministry has on numerous occasions stated that a foreign hand, including the Indian Raw, is actively involved in fomenting violence, the Ministry has yet to provide proof and swing into action against it. Its job is to not indulge in verbal fisticuffs against the troublemakers but to actually drive them out of the country. The issue of infiltration of militants pouring in from the border with Afghanistan also has not been taken seriously. The presence of a large number of Indian military personnel in Afghanistan, especially close to border with Pakistan, should have alerted us to the possibility that the Indians may be placing themselves in an ideal position to enact cross-border terrorism.

There is certainly a lot that our agencies as well as the police need to do to set their house in order. While the police must stop the criminals preferably by giving up its clumsy attitude, it will be intelligence that will be blamed if big terrorist attacks cannot be pre-empted.